Rubber sidewalks go where concrete fears to tread

We all know a place in our community where tree roots are busting trough a sidewalk or paved trail. What to do? Hack the tree roots and risk killing the tree? Move the side walk or trail?

How about rubber sidewalks?

Don’t laugh. Some 130,000 square feet of rubberized sidewalks grace about 60 North American cities, giving local governments an alternative to concrete and its attendant pitfalls, such as rising prices, exorbitant trip-and-fall lawsuits, and a trail of chopped-down urban trees.

Although the rubbers pavers are a 2.5 times the cost of concrete, they can be tree savers. And in places concrete in Western communities, where trees grow slowly, if at all, some rubber pavement may be just the solution for the conflict between rooting and footing.